made funked and nopoop drive the big ugly car.

[funkedup]

That 6 speed is slicker than owl ****.  His clutch is kinda heavy though.  

Yes the Si's are popular with thieves and teenagers.  They were limited production, each dealer only got a few.  And then when they went to the new body style they canceled the Si.  I bought mine for $16 something in 1999 and sold it for $15k even in 2002, to a kid who just got his license.

They have an Si on the new body style, but it is a total turd.  Looks like a minivan.

[GtoRA2]

The Japanese cars just don't do anything for me in the looks department, but it's cool to see one that is fast and not just a tacky plastic monster.

STI was the first Japanese car I have driven that gave me the "I want's"

[funkedup]

Yeah I'm not a "looks" kinda guy.  I just like to drive them.  

[Furball]

Loins MG Midget's big brother

There are initially two versions planned  - the "ordinary" MG X-POWER SV which weighs in with 326bhp from a quad cam V8 engine creating a 0-60mph speed of 5 seconds and a top speed of 170mph. This will be the basic version of the car starting at around £65,000.

However the more exciting version is the MG X-POWER SV CLUB SPORT. This beast weighs in at 410bhp from a 5 litre V8 engine and with a 0-60mph of  4.4seconds and with it's top speed limited to a mere 195mph. However there are more variations planned - the car on show at Birmingham was  powered by a Sean Hyland tuned 5 litre quad cam  V8 producing some 465bhp with a 0-60mph of 4.2 seconds and a top speed in excess of 200mph. Even more extreme factory options will be made available including engines with nitrous oxide injection rumoured to be approaching the 1000bhp mark !!. Not the sort of vehicle to collect granny and do the shopping in.

Stick that up yer big bore pipe and smoke it!!!

[Mini D]

Had a 2001 Acura GSR.... here's a pic of it:






It was a very quick car over 4k (170hp).  Its major downer was it handled like crap.  It didn't have traction control and the torque steer was horrendous.  Only car I ever had that handled worse was a 91 pontiac Grand Prix with a 3.4 liter (210hp).  It was also very twitchy in corners with unpredictable behavior (the integra).  Best day of my car owning life was the day that car was stolen... or more to the point... the insurance gave me the check for it.

And funkypants... there is a kit to get 200hp out of the Mini Coper S... costs about 3k over the cost of the car.  You'd be into it for about $25k.  Still waiting for someone to turn their attention toward the standard.

MiniD

[funkedup]

Yeah I saw that kit, not much bang for the buck.
I'd be more interested in an Integra Type R engine swap.  
Sad to see your 'teg like that.  Civic Si handling was pretty similar to the GS-R's I drove.  Excellent handling unless you were using the throttle, then lots of wheelspin.  Si was set up a bit more neutral than the GS-R though, so you could hang the tail out if you dropped the throttle during a turn.

[Furball]

errr..... minid.... your car seems to have a few parts missing!

not to mention steering wheel on wrong side and a flat tire!

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by funkedup
Top speed was redline limited, about 140.  If you could get a Mini with that motor I probably wouldn't have a Subaru.  

Out of curiousity, why would you need 140?  any track you'd take it to with some sort of car club would probably not permit 140 in the straight away...the max one can get at the Seattle International raceway track is about 120 before you need to brake for the corner.  Do you consistently cruise above 120 on the freeway or would it simply be a "braggin' rights" issue to have a car that goes that fast?

[lazs2]

skuzzy is correct.. my cousin had a 66 ford gallaxie with a 425hp dual four side oiler 427 and four speed factory fiberglass hood... probly save 200 lbs on that boat.

guys... we are getting off base here.. notice the "original" 1/4 mile times in the articles?   those on f70 polyglass tires and those on slicks?   the slicks were about as sticky back then as your standard wall mart radial with the pressure adjusted to 20lbs.   Any of those old muscle cars will knock on the 12's with good modern tires..  better intakes, cams and exhaust make it simple to knock onb the 11's   And... that is with modern gas and low compression.. the old muscle cars ran 11 to 1 or more.

As for "turner" versions kicking the poor ol elkies butt... maybe but... I could get the elky into the 10's with a few bucks and still be about 1/3 or less of the cost of the tuner.  Many cirrent street muscle cars will run in the low 10's high nines.

Brakes, suspension gearboxes are all better now but... new cars are well sorted out.   It's hard to compete and not have a car that is full of comprimise... rough ride, noise... no fuel economy but... We can compete...  we can compete straight line or around corners or stopping... a baer braked chevelle will stop 0-6- in 100 feet... 3700 lb chevelles will pull allmost 1 g around corners with the right parts.

but why bother?  you bleed and get towed and pour money in before you get it sorted out.... even then... you have something that is at best a comprimise... not really all that practical.   You could buy things right off the showroom floor that work allmost as well.   Maybe even better if you are willing to spend 200,000 bucks or more.   I guess... Buy it or build it is the choice.  
lazs

[lazs2]

Oh funked... speaking of "tuners"  how do you think the healey would do if I took out the nostalgia 331 and 4 speed and dumped a 454 injected and supercharged small block (yes, I said small block) with a six speed and 4 wheel disc brakes?   The car would still weigh 2200 lbs but be a good honest and dependable 700-1000 hp.   it would cost me about 20 grand but I bet I could keep up with the subarus and evos.  
lazs

[funkedup]

Like I said before, they could only beat you by spending at least 3-5 times whatever you spend.  A Subie or Evo can get down to about 12.0 for $6k or so.  To go beyond that gets ridiculously expensive, because the stock engine internals and transmission will not hold up.

[funkedup]

Originally posted by Ripsnort
Out of curiousity, why would you need 140?  any track you'd take it to with some sort of car club would probably not permit 140 in the straight away...the max one can get at the Seattle International raceway track is about 120 before you need to brake for the corner.  Do you consistently cruise above 120 on the freeway or would it simply be a "braggin' rights" issue to have a car that goes that fast?

I was just describing the gearing to GTO.  The car was geared really short, which is a lot of the reason it could run better 1/4 mile times than most cars with 97 cubes.  Most cars are geared so that your speed is limited by drag before you run out of revs.

[lazs2]

yep funked... exactly... gearing is mostly for mileage... the 5.0 mustangs had 2.75 rears in em... my highway patrol mustang had 3.55 gears..  the 3.55 gear was better suited for top speed.   It would actually do 140 or better while the 2.75 cars just didn't have the grunt to pull those gears.  which brings us back too....

muscle cars of the 60's 70's had to have relatively tall gears to be the least bit practical... there were no overdrives so... to cruise at anything less than 4 grand on the freeway you needed 3.50 gears... compound those gears with f70 tires and 500 foot lbs of torque and you had real traction problems to go along with the noise and crappy fuel economy...

enter the overdrive tranny... be it 460L auto or tremac 5/6 speed or (my favorite) richmound gear 6 speed....  The muscle car with these trannies is something completely different.... now you will be (in effect) doing the quarter and 0-60 runs with a 4.86 rear and cruising the freeway with 2.75 gears... same car that did 14.5 quarter miles with a top speed around 130 back in the day..... will now do 12 sec  quarters and top out around 160-170 or more.

Not to take away from modern technolodgy but.... most of the advances in quickness and handling and top speed are related to tires and transmissions and.... the old standby.... turbo/supercharging.    All those things transfer over quite easily to the old musclecars even fuel injection and computer controls.   do it in the driveway under a shade tree.
lazs

[GtoRA2]

Rip
 Your 140MPH argument can be taken in a bad direction, why does anyone need a car that goes faster then 65 or 70, thats the speed limit in most states. It suprises me the safety nuts havn't gone after that yet.

[GtoRA2]

Laz is spot on...

I was thinking of trying to fuel inject my Goat, but gave up on it cause I didn't want to spend the 2500$

That Richmond Gear tranny was an awesome upgrade best one I ever made, a slight pain to install but it made a huge difference in the car.

I had planned on going with a gearvenders overdrive for this goat, turning the 3 speed auto into an overdrive auto, but I had to spend the cash on something else. lol.